SIDE EFFECTS: Catherine Zeta-Jones in Soderbergh film, Annapurna Out

Catherine Zeta-Jones cast in Steven Soderbergh‘s Side Effects, loses Annapurna. Catherine Zeta-Jones joins a Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects cast that already includes Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Channing Tatum but has lost financing from Annapurna Pictures. The film is still in the casting phase and has yet to begin shooting.

Some say Megan Ellison‘s Annapurna Pictures recently pulling out of financing Side Effects:

had to do with the casting of Blake Lively as a troubled young woman who develops a dangerous love triangle between her doctor (Jude Law) and her newly paroled husband (Channing Tatum). Zeta-Jones, whose husband Michael Douglas is a frequent Soderbergh collaborator, would play another of Lively’s doctors. Insiders tell us, despite the setback, financing should be locked back into place shortly, foreign sales are already taken care of, and an April start date in New York City is still a go. The big question is whether or not Lively will stick around (or if another studio also isn’t super keen on her leading the picture, as Annapurna weren’t), but a number of potential names are already being spit-balled in case she doesn’t, including Rooney Mara, Michelle Williams and two females that were being eyed for supporting roles in Soderbergh’s now defunct version of “The Man From Uncle,” Emily Blunt and Imogen Poots.

How Side Effects is being brought to the screen with Annapurna in or out of the picture:

The Scott Z. Burns scripted film…with production to start in April in New York [is] a thriller that has a budget in the $30 million range. Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing with Greg Jacobs and Burns. Open Road recently signed on to distribute in the U.S.

On Catherine Zeta-Jones and the other stars’ roles in the film:

Zeta-Jones will play Dr. Erica Siebert. Lively plays a troubled and depressed woman who is taking serious amounts of prescription drugs, which leads her into a relationship with another doctor (Law). Her intake is ostensibly designed to help her deal with the anxiety surrounding the pending release of her husband (Tatum) from prison.

On the history of Side Effects:

Burns wrote it several years ago and set it up at Miramax under the title The Side Effects, intending to direct it but never getting there because of his busy scripting schedule that included the Soderbergh projects Contagion, The Informant! and Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Whoever ends up playing the main female role, the film is still moving ahead.

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Rollo Tomasi

A Political Science and MBA grad who started FilmBook during an eCommerce B-School course in 2008. Cinema and TV addict. Former writer at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and Alternative Film Guide. In addition to writing for FilmBook, he also edits the copy published on the website, manages its writing staff, manages the back-end operations, site finances, its social network accounts, and works with publicists, actors, and companies on press coverage and promotions. He has also created ProMovieBlogger.com and Trending Awards.com.